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Everything felt different, and Vittoria did not know yet whether in a positive or negative way, at the moment she just knew that she wasn't really hungry and started playing with her food while thinking about her old school's cantine, where she used to enjoy spending lunch with her old friends. Remembering how calm but funny everyone was, except for some people, but she used to spend her time with the same people every time, so she didn't quite care about the few rotten apples that were in her school.
"Does the Latin teacher call on you?" A girl, Martine, from another class asked the girls from her class, making Vittoria snap out of her moment of trance.
"He ignores us." Simone responded.
"He acts like we are not even there; for me, it's abnormal; people in my old town seem more open-minded than here, and my town was full of old people," Vittoria responded, clearly against the teacher old-school mentality.
"Where are you from, Vittoria? I noticed a little accent, but I don't know where it's from," Simone asked curiously.
"I hoped people didn't notice it; I worked really hard on my French; my dad wanted me to know his mother tongue, but I guess my mom's side took over even in my way of talking," Vittoria said, a little happy in a way. "I lived in Italy all my life, in a little town near Rome; I visited France once or twice, but my dad used to teach me French so that I could have known his native language," Vittoria added, making every girl look at her in awe.
"So I was right, you are Sophia Loren's sister!" Simone exclaimed, laughing and making the other girls chuckle too, and Vittoria giggled, embarrassed.
"Are you really the dean's niece?" Annick asked Michele, curious, shifting all the attention on the poor girl.
"Yes." Michele responded a little timid.
"That's helpful." Annick responded with a shrug of her shoulders.
"So Vittoria, tell us more about Ita-" Simone started saying, wanting to know more about Italy, but was quickly interrupted by the boy who this morning was sitting near Annick, Henri Pichon, tripping and falling with his hand on Vittoria's plate of smashed potatoes.
"I'm so sorry, Vittoria." Pichon said in clear panic, scared by the possible reaction of the girl.
"Do you want my plate?" The boy asked, rushing to get his plate for the girl, but he was stopped by the said girl.
"No, no, don't worry; accidents happen every time, and I wasn't going to eat any way, so really don't worry." The girl responded with a genuine smile on her face, while the boy looked at her confused by such a nice reaction.
